Delete search history: remove past searches

If you share a computer or laptop with another person, it can be useful to regularly delete your search history. After all, you don't always want the other person to see what you've just searched for. Unless you use an anonymous search engine, search engines remember every past search query.
To leave no traces in the browser, you can make additional settings. Here's how to clear your search history in just a few minutes.

Delete search history: Easily remove individual search queries

Since the search engine remembers all data, you should delete your Google history every now and then. After all, you can use the search engine to find out about personal things that you probably don't want anyone else to see. If you don't want this information to be stored permanently or to be displayed to other people, you should delete your search history.

If you want to delete your Google search history, all you have to do is log in to your Google account. Afterwards, you can choose whether you want to delete individual search queries or the entire history. If you only want to remove individual search terms, you should delete the previously searched terms in the Google search bar.

All you have to do is click on the "X" behind the search term. On the computer, if you want to delete the search history, you first have to hover over the term to be deleted so that the "X" is displayed.

Delete the entire search history - this is how to do it

If you want to completely delete your search history, you can of course also make the entire history disappear. In this case, you have to log into your Google account and manage your Google account. The next step is to select "Data & Personalization".

Then click "Manage Activity Settings" under the "Activity Settings" section if you want to delete the search history. If you want to manage your activities, you will find a list of all search queries that you have made via the search engine. If you select all search queries via the filter button, you can delete the search history on Google.

Depending on the option you choose, you can select whether you want to delete the search queries of the last hour, yesterday or a certain period of time. If you confirm the selection with the "Ok" button, the search history will be deleted.

Delete search history: Automatically delete all data

If you do not always want to delete the search history yourself, it is possible to have your data deleted automatically. If you select this option, all data will be deleted after a certain time. To do this, you also have to log into your Google account and open the activity settings. If you now select a specific period, the search history is automatically deleted after this specific period.

Set deletion intervals and have the search history deleted

When deleting at certain intervals, you can currently choose between three intervals - 3, 18 or 36 months. The time period can be set under "Web & app activities". If you confirm the selection, you no longer have to worry about deleting your search history yourself, because this is done automatically at the selected intervals.

That’s why you should regularly delete your search history

Whether a website is visited, a search query is started or a file is downloaded - if you do not use a data-secure search engine, you will always leave traces on the Internet. These tracks are stored in the browser. If these are private matters and the device is used by several people, it is essential to delete the search history.

People often spend a lot of time on the Internet these days. Often, users spend several hours at a time surfing the World Wide Web. There is no getting around a browser - after all, you need it to be able to surf the Internet at all. The search or search engine is an essential part of finding websites or information.

Although all search engines generally offer the same functions, search engines without tracking place more emphasis on data protection than Google, for example. When using Google, the individual pages that you have visited are displayed. The purpose of this is actually to find web pages again that you have not saved or have forgotten. With a look into the search history, you can quickly find the website again. However, the disadvantage is that other people who share the device can find out which pages were visited by other users.

This is not desirable, for example, if you bought a gift for your friend and you do not want him to know what he gets. So it is worth deleting the search history. But this is not the only reason why you should delete the search history. The more web pages are in the search history, the more storage space is needed. Especially when several users use the same device, the amount of data can grow a lot, so deleting the search history from time to time only makes sense.

Delete search history and gain more anonymity?

Deleting the search history does not guarantee anonymity on the Internet. Even the well-known incognito mode or private mode is not sufficient in this case. If you have already deleted your search history and want to act anonymously on the Internet, you should use a VPN provider.

VPN is the abbreviation for Virtual Private Network, where closed and encrypted communication is given. This means that online activities cannot be tracked at all. So you don't always have to delete your search history, because with a VPN anonymous surfing is possible without any problems.